Skeleton Crew Episode 6 fixes the Star Wars pirate bug

This article contains mild spoilers for “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” episode 6, “Zero Friends Again.”

Star Wars is one of the largest fictional universes in film and TV, filled with countless legends, stories, places and people. Like Middle-earth, it's a place that can support almost any type of story. That's also why “Skeleton Crew” feels so fresh; an all-ages adventure existence set in the same universe as Andor. nothing but good news for the sustainability of Star Wars.

More than just “The Goonies” in space, “Skeleton Crew” takes the franchise somewhere it's never been before, telling the story of a group of kids who yearn for adventure and plunges them into a world of ruthless pirates and a legendary quest. treasure. (It's basically the Star Wars version of Treasure Planet.) The Mandalorian promised to take viewers deep into the Star Wars underworld to become much more concerned with the connection to and creation of other Star Wars projects, while The Book of Boba Fett completely failed to portray the troubled world of the criminal cartels that operates on Tatooine, finally “Skeleton Crew” (like “Andor” before it) fulfills the promise of George Lucas' never-made live-action Star Wars: Underworld series. Indeed, it has already shown us the darker side of a galaxy far, far away—one full of constant danger and murders in search of riches or big scores.

It's not like this is the first time pirates have been involved in a Star Wars project. Han Solo himself was called a pirate in A New Hope, while the cartoons The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels introduced many pirate crews with their own styles and ruthless ways. And yet it wasn't until “Skeleton Crew” that we finally got an important piece of pirate iconography that “Star Wars” had been missing for decades: the space marine hut.

In the latest episode of “Skeleton Crew”, titled “Zero Friends Again”, Jude Law's Jod Na Navud (aka Crimson Jack, Silvo the Mad Captain, Dash Zentin, Professor Umiam Gorelox and Jodwick Zank) is captured by his former pirate crew. to be sentenced to death. However, before that happens, he is given an opportunity parlay for his freedom à la the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies — an opportunity he uses to convince the crew to join him in his search for the great treasure of Athens. He even charmingly explains how he found a recording by the legendary Captain Tak Rennod, which talks about the eternal treasure planet.

But when words aren't enough, Jodh starts talking nonsense about Rennod and his legendary exploits aboard the Onyx Cinder. That's right, we now have our very first Star Wars space marine hut, and pretty much everyone else on the team knows it and joins in the sing-along, which suggests that this particular hut is popular enough to be well known across the galaxy. Suffice it to say, these terms; sea ​​barns are great, exciting and help to create a colorful picture of pirate life in a certain time period. It's also the secret ingredient that made Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag one of the best video games in the franchise, giving you as a player even more reason to spend hours just sailing the sea with your crew, listening to the sea barn and forgetting. for the main task.

Of course, there's also the fact that the murder of Rennod is another undeniable reference to Robert Louis Stevenson's classic Treasure Island novel, which serves as a huge inspiration for the Skeleton Crew (from the legendary treasure on both the show Young Heroes and Pirates Want Jod would initially present himself as an ally before revealing his true colors to the children). In the movie “Treasure Island”, the song “Fifteen Men on the Dead Man's Chest” is not only a popular tune among pirates, but also a key clue to the location of the titular location. Rennod's song may have another verse that holds a clue to the fate of the pirate legend.

“Zero Friends Again” also brings back the pirate tradition of walking the plank, or rather getting out of a spaceship's airlock. It's a method of execution that has been used in Star Wars for years, especially in The Clone Wars, when pirates and bounty hunters (especially Cad Bane) threaten to banish others to the cold abyss of space. In Rebels, while not technically a pirate, the war criminal Chopper keeps killing people by throwing them out of airlocks like a twisted devil.

More than space cowboys and outlaws like Han Solo and Lando Calrissian, who care mostly about themselves and tend to work alone, pirates bond with their crew, have fun looting and looting, and are mostly just weird guys like werewolf Shistavanen Brutus (Fred Tatasciore) in “Skeleton Crew” or Swamp Thing similar to Gorian Shard in “The Mandalorian” (one of the best characters Star Wars has introduced in years). Space travel is the analogue of sea travel, so it makes sense that the “Star Wars” universe is full of pirates. If Skeleton Crew has proven anything, it's that you can never have too many pirates in space.

New episodes of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew air on Disney+ Tuesdays at 6pm PST.